I agree with some of what he says, we definitely don't need R-rated adult material in animated movie to make it good. But his argument is also kind of ridiculous because it sees Pixar and Disney as mostly kids' entertainment. Which it is NOT. I mean really, wasn't Inside Out pretty much ALL about the human condition?

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

Why is everyone treating Sausage Party like an Actual Thing[tm]?Because a supposed "big-name" actor went out and produced it, as opposed to anyone else's cheap passive-hostile stoned-out ramble on Adult Swim?

And the columnist's idea of "Silly rabbit, Pixar for kids!" is pretty much the same anger-issue gag Rogen went into the project with, fueled by the fact that he often vocally hated many of the roles he had to do for Dreamworks.Seems like there are a lot of people who WISH this was a good Actual movie because of their own personal issues, but wishing doesn't make it so.

("But what about Ralph Bakshi??"...Oh, you mean the guy who spent his entire career whining about the days he had to work at Terrytoons? Yeah, that seems to be where most of the "edginess" is coming from.)

But Eric's conspiracy theories aside, I would argue we only get a handful of "adult" animated movies (being defined here as movies not for children, as opposed to ones that both kids and adults can enjoy), even if not all of them are necessarily rated R. From Up on Poppy Hill, although technically "okay" for kids thematically, I would say classifies as one of Ghibli''s "grown up" films, as does The Wind Rises and especially The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. North America, it must be said, seems to produce very few of them, though, with Anomalisa being one of the only I can think of off the top of my head that is truly for "grown ups" (and not just because of the sex).

Of course, Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks have made their share of "adult" animated movies as well, even though they are all obviously perfectly fine for kids. I do remember The Prince of Egypt and especially Antz being specifically marketed to an older audience (when they were in theaters. The home video commercials were another story), and How to Train Your Dragon 2 is in many ways more "grown up" than the majority of Pixar films as far as I'm concerned. And in terms of storytelling and tone, Zootopia was probably the most "adult" film Disney's made since at least Atlantis.

However, "adult" is obviously a broad definition (so broad that none of this post may make any sense). But it goes without saying that "big kids" enjoy this stuff just as much--of not more--than children do...to the point where I even think we could safely call Sausage Party "a kid's movie for adults," if that makes sense.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

We've had three examples lately where Summer '16 has not been about the quality of movies, but about whether a loyal niche can rally behind it to champion their own issues, and claiming that anyone who might dispute its quality just doesn't understand!It's what you might call the Bad Santa factor: It's not a very good film, or made by the most coherently-thinking people, but it attracts a lot of loyalty by a particular audience to see everyone gasp at the very symbolic on-paper idea that something as sainted as an animated CGI movie (especially for those who hold grudges against Zootopia and Dory's recent unstoppability) can be treated with "our" R-rated wrongness! And anyone who says it's a mess, you just want those cheap kiddie films, don't you?

But Eric's conspiracy theories aside, I would argue we only get a handful of "adult" animated movies (being defined here as movies not for children, as opposed to ones that both kids and adults can enjoy), even if not all of them are necessarily rated R.

That's the problem: A lot of people DO use the other definition. Because they want to. And wanting to is the problem.As the saying goes, there's very little that's ever "adult" about an R-rated movie.